By DEROY MURDOCK
Thursday, April 05, 2007
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research recently generated headlines when it announced that former Vice President Al Gore's Nashville estate "devoured nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours" of electricity in 2006, "more than 20 times the national average."
This free-market think tank's phones lit up when it analyzed Nashville Electric Service's public records and identified an inconvenient gap between Gore's conservationism and his energy consumption. The research center's one-page press release was greeted with enough megawatts of hatred to power the South.
"I was accused several times of being a 'stupid, redneck bitch,'" recalls Nicole Williams, who fielded numerous calls. "I repeatedly was called a 'whore' and asked 'Whose whore are you?' for three days straight, almost as if those were talking points ... I was shocked by these sexist insults _ basically attacking my gender."
The calls continued beyond Williams' Nashville office.
"I had to change my home number and get an unlisted number," Williams says.
"I got about 10 death threats by phone. I got the 'I'm gonna get you'-type threats more than 100 times ... I worried I would get shot walking to my car."
Williams discovered her obsolete address posted online. "If they could find my old home address, it would not be so hard to find a current one."
Gore's defenders also spewed venomous e-mails. They sent the research center nearly 3,000 Gore-related messages that exhibited the very bigotry the Left routinely denounces. Warning: These offensive, often-vulgar, and occasionally unschooled comments reveal the vitriol behind much of today's "progressive" rhetoric.
_ Many e-mails displayed Dixiephobia _ an intense disdain for the South and Southerners.
"Why don't you all go back to shooting one another across the hollows instead of trying to make people think anyone in Tennessee has an ounce of intelligence?" Roger Miller insisted. "Get your snaggle tooth grins capped and learn to read and write."
"W.T.F. difference would it make if he was (sic) using 1000 times more energy than the average household if it came from clean energy?" Thomas Grinnell wondered. "Don't think about that too much. It will give your southern mullet a headache."
"You really should concentrate on what Southerners do best," D. Hunter advised. "Sodomizing and impregnating little children!"
Christopher LaBarge declared: "I hope you all die slowly and have your hearts and brains trampled to pieces you small-minded, ignorant, backwoods ideologues."
"We should have flattened the South when we had the chance!" wrote Mount Laurel, New Jersey's Robert Dodelin. "If ever you confederates (sic) want to leave the Union please do. We Nothen (sic) states would love to stop having to subsidize you with our tax dollars."
This anti-Southernism mystifies TCPR President Drew Johnson.
"Some people must believe the Mason-Dixon Line runs between our office and Gore's mansion," Johnson says. "No one would call Gore a redneck, but when we uncovered his hypocritical energy use, it somehow made me a sister-dating hillbilly. That's quite amusing, since Gore and I live in Nashville, less than five miles apart."
_ Some e-mails, like Benjamin Greuel's, reflected anti-religious bias: "Go f_k yourselves you neo con, non-secular, bible thumpin, anti-science dumb f_-k pricks."
Similarly, Anthony Black wrote: "You bunch of stupid hick red-necks. I am sure you are quite religious, yet you have no problem destroying His creation with pollution; and, rather than addressing that, you cast dispersions (sic) on Al Gore's home energy use.
_"How about you have a do (sic) humanity a favor and have a stroke," Russ Smith recommended. "You silly metrosexual twit, need some more hi-lites in your hair?"
Another gay-hater wrote: "You guys are the faggiest fags I've ever come across. How do you get any work done, what with all the c_k sucking and such?"
_Two e-mails feature chillingly violent imagery.
"You people are such slime," TJ Williams noted. "You are a total waste of skin and air. Help the environment and jump off a cliff."
Bob Beaver urged: "Find a hole and stick a knife in it."
Such anti-intellectual intimidation reflects the high-octane hate that fuels so much Leftist discourse. Rather than simply argue that Johnson, Williams, and their colleagues are ecologically misguided or misinformed, these bullies call them barefoot, same-sex-loving, Winchester-wielding whores and evangel-yokels. Remember this whenever liberals crow about diversity, tolerance, and open-mindedness.
(New York commentator Deroy Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. E-mail him at deroy.murdock(at)gmail.com.)
Leftist hate: Gore fans abuse, threaten Gore foes
This is no surprise to anyone who has visited any of the websites where the lefties hang out.
Leftist Rage
Well, it sometimes surprises me. I happened to look at the comments on a recent Washington Post opinion piece critical of Ms. Pelosi,
Link Text
The "liberal" commentators were in an absolute potty-mouth furor.
Surprising. Most animals will not defecate in their own dens.
Leftist Rage
Wow. That is the most generalized sociopathic response I have ever heard. Sadly it is from a group of people who want to enact political change in this country, regardless of the truth.
Frightening.
Leftist Rage: a theory
One of the points the seem to be agreed upon, both in the article and the comments following, is that the Leftists are full of irrational rage. I have a few simple ideas regarding that.
Let's say you are playing a game and someone cheats. There may be those who see that cheating has occurred, some who don't see it, perhaps some will on your team, some not. Perhaps even some who are complicit, or cheating as well. In your position, you may well be very angry, because perhaps the game has very high stakes. And some may say "you cheated!"there may be others who want to fight. You get the idea.
Now imagine this game taking place between the citizenry and the government; and each game has a broad playing field concerning large issues that confront us now.
There may be some Liberals (this is the team who we are now discussing) who are especially concerned with the environment, some with the war, some with the bill of rights and the Constitution.
Taking just the environment as an example: when the current administration is exposed as trying to hide that there is an environmental problem, such as global warming, and standing in the way of taking action to remedy that, there will be a general feeling of being cheated, among those on the citizen (let's say Liberal citizen; for the moment let's say this is a partisan issue for the moment)team.
Along comes Gore, quite reasonably exposing this new information; it is easy to see why some would lionize him. We had said that some react with logic, some with strong words, and some even with violence.
So when something like the Gore energy consumption issue comes up, those who have put him in the position of hero, of course are upset. And in every large group there are those who are more reasonable and others who are less reasonable. It's simple human nature.
Here is another idea: Let's suppose, for the sake of making this point, that the contention of one of the posters above, that Liberals today are the more passionate and even at times violent, is true.
I would venture that such a large number of people are so upset that there are bound to be extremists among them. If you do visit the sites that Liberals frequent, you will discover a large number of thoughtfully-argued and -written articles.
I would also posit that there are so many people so upset right now because a great deal of cheating has been exposed. In the areas listed above as well as some others, the American citizenry has been lied to and cheated regarding the war, the environment and in how the administration conducts business.
So of course there are going to be fringe elements, hate-mongers, and the like, but it is not in anyone's best interest to respond with more hatred, overgeneralizations, and demonization. Now is the time to listen and discuss, and learn.
No surprise indeed
"This is no surprise to anyone who has visited any of the websites where the lefties hang out."
It's no surprise to me. Mindless rage long ago replaced rational thought on the far left. It's starting to infect their elected representatives, though, and that's alarming; note the hateful rhetoric that too often emanates from the Democrats in Congress.
I'd be very, very surprised to see a liberal post here and actually denounce his brethren.
Response
Hey Rednecks,
It's nice to see my name in the paper. Let me tell you this... the North and the South have never been one country. We have been kidding outselves. As Clarence Darrow said prior to the Scopes trail, " The South is a backwater and it will always be a backwater". We are tired of supporting you and we are tired of hearing from you. Yes, I am a Northern Progressive New York Educated New Jersey boy and proud of it! I don't like you ignorance of politics and you backwards ass religious beliefs. I don't like the way you let Washington politicians both Republican and Democrats use you. The politicians in Washington are screwing you worse than they are screwing us. Don't you get it? Who is fighting Bush's war in Iraq? Not people like me! It's a rich man's war just like Vietnam. The poor are once again fighting the Rich Man's War. They are dying for what? The Bush Family and their oil friends? Wake the hell up! You are being used. You just don't get it! Read! Read! Read! We are all getting fucked by the politicians and the Rich.
Bob Dodelin, Mount Laurel, New Jersey 856-234-3565. Call me.
And there you have the Left
Semi-literate, irrational fools who will believe anything because it gives them an outlet for their childish rage.
These are the same type of people whom the Left whipped into a froth 100 years ago and, eventually, started the Soviet Union.
Unfortunately, we just gave their brethren control of the country, as Damascus Nancy has shown us.
Yeah, the south is so
Yeah, the south is so totally backwater that Missile Control, Redstone Arsenal and Marshall Space Flight Center aren't based in Alabama or anything.
And all of this excludes Mr. Gore, who is apparently a special type of southerner, a prophet of sorts, who will save us from our ignorance and make us just like him. Wait...we already are. No one ever seems to feel the need to speak about the trash in some of the Northern states. I seem to have heard New Jersey referred to as "the armpit of the United States" on several occasions.
I'm sure there are just as many poor Jersey and northern boys in the army as southern.
You're tired of hearing from us? Then keep your noses out of our business, and we'll stay out of yours. We tend to have some manners, at least. I'm sure many of the intelligent, schooled people here would be glad to be rid of your elitist, close minded views.
THE VIOLENCE OF THE LEFT
I posted the following (after a couple of corrections) over at Dr.Sanity, but I want to thank Deroy for writing what made me realize the ideological similarity between the Left and the Islamists,so I'm posting it here, too. It was your 2003 piece titled, "The Union Way", that inspired me, and the subject ties in quite nicely with your article above, too.
WHY THE DEMS DON'T SEE THE PROBLEM
To them, it is perfectly leftgitimate to use violence to achieve their goal. For them, the end does justify the means.
Furthermore, if someone uses violence, it must be because he feels so strongly about what he believes that he must be right. I.e., the violent means ALSO justify the ends! (Ever notice how they love circular reasoning?}
The Left has a long and honored tradition that persists TO THIS DAY, and is apparently sanctioned by law???!!!, of "solving" their "grievances" with a gun or a bomb.
They really aren't any different from the Islamofascists, except perhaps in degree. But, given time, I'm sure they can catch up.
I don't know why I didn't realize it before. The Dems don't see the problem, because for them it ISN'T a problem.
ytba | Email | Homepage | 06.07.07 - 8:55 pm |
Thanks, Deroy.
A great deal to respond to...
The article and several of the comments following share an assumption, that there are two groups of people, those on the left, and those on the right. And that the left is somehow dominated by ignorant or hateful speech. One need not look any further than the comments here to see evidence to the contrary. Neither left nor right has a corner on the market here.
Reasoned political opinion can be discussed amongst those who are able to do so; there will always be those driven by hatred, prejudice, and anger.
The very title and the framing of the article show that the writer is an ideologue more than a journalist, and therefore one should not put too much faith in what he says. One could have easily used the evidence, along with some balancing evidence to show how polarized people's views have gotten and the unfortunate results of that hyperpolarization.
So instead of jumping on the pile and blaming our troubles on damn liberals, add this into other instances when passions were so strong that they threatened to erupt into violence. Bill O'Reilly comes to mind as an example of someone on the right who incites hatred and bigotry to the extent that some are moved to hate speech and perhaps worse.
Looking at some of the points made in earlier comments, one could easily counter with evidence that the other side is and has done the very same things.
But what does that do? Each side simply looks for or manufactures evidence to justify the opinions it already holds. And most of it is driven by hatred of a person or persons; the process so quickly leaves behind any of the ideals and values that inspire us as citizens.
The finger-pointing and insult-hurling is an indulgence we need to leave behind as a society in order to move forward. So it's not a matter of liberalism or conservatism. Both have wisdom for us to use. Let's not look for evidence to vilify each other. Vilifying is a only few short steps away from dehumanizing and committing acts of
violence.
Time to grow up, people!
Democrats on the capitol steps
I still remember the day after President Bush was sworn in, in January 2001. Nancy, Barbara, Teddy, Harry, and all the other democrat leaders in Congress got up in front of the whole world and announced that they would do whatever it takes to make sure George Bush failed as president. From the lies in the left-wing media, to the lies and denials from lefist politicians, to the pseudo-intellectual murmurings from the Hollywood left, they have tried to do everything they promised. Yet their approval ratings are in single digits, and President Bush's ratings are still double digit. Then they tried to shove Obama down our throats. Finally they convinced Americans to buy the enigmatic hope, and change promises. That reminds me that Hitler promised the Germans the same thing. Go figure!
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